Russia Likely Unleashed Stuxnet, Says USA’s Cyber-Defense Expert

USA and Israel largely presume that Russia is behind the Stuxnet PC-virus, which attacked the nuclear plants in Iran, published 'The Diplomat' dated December 10, 2011.

Previously, it was widely regarded that the Stuxnet was a cyber-weapon that USA and Israel jointly created for causing destruction at the nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran. However, as the perpetrators' identity has now become known, it isn't unclear anymore.

Essentially, cyber-defense analyst Dr. Panayotis A. Yannakogeorgos attached to the Air Force Research Institute of USA says that Russia isn't in favor of a nuclear capability built indigenously in Iran. For, profits of Russian firms will prove beneficial only when Iran maintains engineers and scientists from there in its own country for supervising its nuclear progress, he observes. Softpedia published this dated December 12, 2011.

Moreover, it's reported that the purpose of the cyber-weapon was to attack one particular SCADA PLC (programmable logic controls) edition of Siemens running certain configuration along with many cascading centrifuges within Iran.

Incidentally, a few assessors raise the truth regarding vulnerability analyses getting conducted on Siemens PLC application at Idaho National Labs while according to others, the cyber-weapon nearly resembles the well-designed as well as ethically planned war-equipment in the cyber-warfare description of Richard Clark that minimizes collateral destruction because of numerous lawyers inspecting its impact.

Meanwhile Dr. Panayotis says that Russia, by utilizing its distinct observations, subsequently plays the diplomacy-and-delay strategy of the Byzantine kind. While taking more time to implement a program citing reasons of technicality cannot be allowed for indefinitely, the country's active role within the nuclear scheme has a connection with Russo-American negotiations, he explains.

Furthermore, Dr. Panayotis believes that it's possible for the Russians to install certain digital fingerprints for ensuring that the malware's analyst would conclude that Israel and USA were responsible for it. But, as nobody is formally blaming the two countries, Russia can hold on; however, they'll simultaneously know precisely everything that happens to Iran's nuclear scheme.

Eventually, according to Dr. Panayotis, it's immaterial as to who's controlling the Stuxnet. Still, analysis of the worm is ongoing since there isn't any strong evidence regarding its origin.